DD wants to do degrees not really related to the job she wants to have?

[Millsiei]

DD is in Y13, she’s doing her A-Levels in Maths, Economics, English Literature and Italian, as she grew up in France and her dad is French she will also do the A-level in French (we only moved here last year and she’s had a look and thinks it will be easy). Her UCAS application still hasn’t been submitted as she can’t decide what to apply for!
DD wants to be a financial advisor, I have no idea why but this is what she wants to do. Her dad managed to arrange a little internship type thing at a small asset management firm in the summer just gone and that’s the role she fell in love with.
However she doesn’t want to study finance or accounting etc.
Shes narrowed it down to either.

• Economics and MFL (Italian if it has to be from A-level or German if they let you start as a beginner)
• Law and MFL (Italian)
• MFL (Italian and German)

Her least favourite choice is Economics, but school are encouraging that. Between straight MFL and Law with MFL she can’t decide at all. She says she wants to do law as it’s interesting and one of the Financial advisors she met had studied law. Or MFL but she’s not sure how she would jump from there to her goal job.

Her predicted grades are A* in Italian and Economics (probably French too) and A in Maths and English so she has options.

Any advice as I’m slowly losing my mind waiting for her to decide!

Is she already studying the syllabus for French? As a fluent French speaker, I don't think having to put additional time into studying literature alongside English literature and the literature she has to cover in Italian will benefit her career goals... and if she doesn't put time into it, she won't necessarily get an A.

Lots of people do degrees that are unrelated to their career goal and that goal may change over the next three years. If she's sure of what she wants to do, gaining relevant experience along the way will be fine.

The degrees in finance and accounting aren't generally considered a good starting point in the U.K. as they replicate a lot of the training you will get from a good grad scheme but only get you exemptions from some of the professional exams.

Something like economics or law is much more respected and will give her a much better base for a job in finance.

I know about asset management, not financial advice, but you mentioned it so I’ll start there.

There are many many many lawyers in AM! I assume in advice too. there would be loads of paths into various bits of finance with a law degree.

MFL is less directly relevant (although there will be some jobs where it’s an advantage).

Most people working in the City have a generic degree in something irrelevant (I work with a lot of philosophy grads!), so don’t stress too much.

Look at the Investment 20/20 website for some careers advice in the area.

Good luck to your DD!

Yes I agree with @Cornishmumofone – unless she is already studying for the French A level I am not sure what benefit that would bring and it might undermine her other grades, which would be a big disbenefit.

Otoh if she is taking Italian then (assuming the same board) the syllabi will be similar so she will know what to do. She will still need to get ahead on the film and the book tho and she only has about five months.

I would think tbh any of her options would work well – I'm not an IFA (!) but I agree, it’s one of the roles that can be accessed from most degrees.

Gap year sounds best and time to get more work experience and weigh everything up. Then apply grades in hand.
She could sit French in gap year too rather than potentially affecting existing 4 A levels by overstretching. Most schools only recommend 3.
Lots of the top rated universities for law degrees require lnat oass. If she’s not sitting it then it limits her options. There are dates it has to be sat by, most will have already taken it for 2025 entry.

If she doesn’t like the idea of economics she really shouldn’t do it. It’s grim to be at uni studying something you’ve got no interest in! Law would be a good option

Wouldn’t bother doing a degree at all to be a financial advisor. She’d be better off doing an apprenticeship. However I suspect at her age she just doesnt really know what’s jobs are actually out there. I don’t think it’s a great job to get into anyway - it’s being increasingly replaced by AI so jobs are reducing not increasing.

I personally wouldn’t do MFL by itself. It’s one of the worst degrees to do for employment afterwards.

Has she looked at apprenticeship schemes at something like the big four?

I personally wouldn’t do MFL by itself. It’s one of the worst degrees to do for employment afterwards.

I’m interested in this comment @Phonicshaskilledmeoff – what do you mean? Do you mean it’s difficult (teaching apart) to find a job directly related to degree subject (translating, interpreting, tough careers to get into)? If so I would agree, but tbh the same is true for many other non-STEM degrees – history, English, criminology, psychology, sports science, media, journalism ...

MFL degree is as good as any other degree to get you a place on a graduate scheme or a job that just needs an unspecified degree (there are plenty). If you enjoy it then it’s an excellent choice. And I think (I mean it’s my subject so I would) that it shows resilience and an open outlook – not an easy subject and one that embraces the rest of the world in a positive way.

My only advice is NOT to take 5 A levels, however easy she thinks adding the 5th will be. She is 3 A star potential, be a shame to risk that. I'd suggest she knocks English and French on the head and focus on getting A stars for the other three.

Law and Italian doesn't sound like it would do her any harm career wise at all, esp if she can add A stars in Maths and Eco.

Oh and she is absolutely right not to do Finance or accounting.

You’d always be competing with a native speaker for jobs that required the language. The jobs are fairly limited anyway, and not particularly highly paid.

My cousin graduated with a Spanish degree a few years ago… and after trying to figure out her life for a year ended up in teaching. She will never pay her loan back, it’s increased significantly since she graduated - will only cover the interest once she hits £65k.

If I’m honest, I’m not sure I would do a degree these days without a fairly guaranteed high paying job. I did economics when £3k a year. Almost paid it back 10 years later on £60k which isn’t fantastic but I’ll take it given I’ve had 3 babies. I’m not sure I’d make the same decision now it’s £££££ can’t imagine taking on such a debt knowing I’ll never pay it back.

If just wanting to jump into an unrelated graduate job, she may as well try and get into a post a level apprenticeship scheme instead or work her way up from a more junior role. Particularly if it’s as a financial advisor.

I find it hard to see the value for money or return for a degree such as MFL. I’d sooner move to the country in question For a year- cheaper and more valuable experience.

I'm an ex accountant, having worked in investment banking and now investing/asset management. Repeating what PPs have said, I'd steer clear of finance and accountancy and pick any academic degree from a decent uni.

With my corporate finance (M&A) hat on, most people were either qualified accountants or lawyers and joined three years post graduation.

The fund managers I know often have ACAs or started out as equity analysts. You should have decent numerical skills but you don't need a related degree (and frankly an economics degree isn't the be all and end all that people seem to think it is for these type of careers).

You’d always be competing with a native speaker for jobs that required the language. The jobs are fairly limited anyway, and not particularly highly paid.

Ah OK you are talking about linguist jobs such as translation. Yes I agree that that is not a great route to go down. Although if we are talking about "jobs that require language" as part of the role but along with other skills, such as a project manager who needed to be able to communicate with the team in France, then I don't think that would necessarily only be available to a native speaker.

If just wanting to jump into an unrelated graduate job, she may as well try and get into a post a level apprenticeship scheme instead or work her way up from a more junior role.

OK...post-A-level apprenticeships in specific roles are not easy to get. You are a lot more likely to get on if you get a degree and go that way. A lot more firms are looking to recruit graduates, in any subject, than are looking to take on an 18yo and see them through uni.

If you look at job ads you'll see how many want a degree. My DH doesn't have a degree, neither does a good friend. In both cases they have often crossed off job after job bc they cannot tick that box. In fact the friend has their current job mainly bc I persuaded them that they had bags of relevant experience and that would be acceptable (I knew the role and the company and knew it was a role they could do).

Caveat: I don't know about financial advisers and the need or not for a degree there. I really value higher ed for its own sake tho and I am glad that my DC have done as well.

Thanks everyone.

She won’t have uni debt so we aren’t worried about that and she wants to go to uni. It’s not all about the job at the end for her, she loves learning and wants the uni experience.
MFL is her favourite thing to study, but she is highly interested in learning about law she just doesn’t want to be a lawyer.
Also if she went down the linguistic/translation route, she is a native speaker of 2 languages so would have a bit of a head start.

Also just to add that there's a big difference between being a financial adviser and working at one of the big asset management firms.

The former doesn't have particularly high barriers to entry and you don't necessarily need a degree (I'm talking the bog standard FAs, not the wealth management firms advising high net worth individuals).
Asset management in terms of fund management etc is a lot more competitive but that's not to say that being a FA isn't a good career.

I was at the Women in Financial Advice awards in London last week and I'd forgotten how many different niches there are. Some also received awards for working with people facing severe financial/health problems which was impressive.

I wouldn’t go again- it was a waste of money for me.

my husband didn’t go (largely because he got shit gcse results and then pretty much failed his a levels). But he then got an entry level role in a bank call centre. Moved internally to an entry level role in finance, moved up and is now on six figures with no debt. My colleague got great a levels but didn’t want to get into debt so did a big 4 apprenticeship. She’s now a senior manager before she’s 30.

These are just a couple of examples in my world of work. I certainly won’t be pushing my kids into university unless there is a clear reason for going. I think they’d be better off taking the money and living in a different country for a year.

But, the op has advised her daughter will have no debt, so she’s free to do whatever she likes. I would still personally do a language with something else, but it’s entirely up to her. As an employer, I’d probably want a subject that shows breadth of transferable skills. Maybe she should look at the syllabus for individual courses. For example under the economics course, she might find it very maths based. Alternatively, it could be fairly broad - mine had politics and sociology modules embedded for example.

I would get her to look at the content of degree courses and also think about where she would like to work, would it be in the UK or abroad?

Financial advisor does not require a degree though I would double check exactly what the role was she liked and what aspects of their role she liked as some finance roles require degrees and can be very competitive. Languages are useful in quite a few finance roles but people generally have them in addition to a degree. Law it's worth considering where she would work, even though she does not anticipate using law now that could change in future and laws vary by country. Other people would be better than me to advise on law but just on a quick look if she say wanted to work in France this includes French law and has 2 years in Paris. Not got the languages in degree though. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/english-law-and-french-law-llb. Economics degrees can be very different to A level and massive variation though normally a common core of macro and micro but some will be very maths based and others much broader with topics such as development economics, politics, sociology or some have lots of options and can combine. And look through languages degrees. I would go for what she would enjoy as that way you are more likely to get a job you enjoy. Also consider a gap year if she's really unsure, could give her chance to try things out, travel and have a clearer idea. I would be slightly concerned about a career as a financial advisor if she doesn't like studying economics, finance or accountancy, may be other careers more suited to her. I don't think there are a massive amount of translation jobs here nor do they pay well which isn't everything but it's good to have a job you enjoy and to have enough to live comfortably on. Every meeting I've been to here that's international has been done in English though have been asked to read documents in other languages.

Law is a well regarded academic degree. A law with language degree from a top uni would be a good starting place for many careers. Lots of people with law degrees don’t want to go and qualify as a solicitor or barrister. Lots offer law with a language as a 4 yr degree with yr 3 abroad.

The MD of our Chartered Financial Advice company has a law degree.

It’s a great career choice. I’d encourage your daughter to study whatever interests her most at the best university she can and to try to secure more work experience during the long vacs. One of the business she works for may well be impressed enough to take her on and train her up. She may train as a para planner initially and work in that role before progressing to an advisor role.

@Millsiei My DD has a joint MFL degree and is a barrister - you can do anything with MFLs providing you are intelligent!

I would strongly suggest she looks at a Management degree - particularly at Bath. These are high quality degrees and I think a MFL can be added in. I would swerve business and accounting degrees because management is a much better bet. More versatile.

Law degree holders are everywhere because thousands of them don’t get solicitor or barrister training positions. They have to look for another role. Again law can be done with MFL but whether she will use it is a moot point. I do know a lawyer who was sent to their Paris office - had MFL degree from Cambridge. As a barrister it’s irrelevant for DD but she ticks other boxes.

An MFL degree can take you down all sorts of career routes including Finance and Law as well as the more obvious ones like teaching. Conversely, the friends I have who did Accountancy and Law degrees didn't actually end up in those careers.

While I don't know what financial advice firms etc look for, I would think studying what she wants to would be fine. Giving financial advice is as much about reading and getting to grips with the terms and conditions and matching with your client's needs, surely.

But History or English could help, and so could an MFL degree which might include history/English/social science content - and some universities offer subsidiary options.

Law seems quite useful in terms of both a framework and the transferable skills - getting to grips with documents and terminology and explaining them. My brief experience temping as a legal secretary before getting a job which I stayed in for 14 years included some private client work which I didn't find very interesting but it is an area that links up with financial advice. A university friend who I've lost touch with trained as a solicitor and then worked in tax for a while before getting a training contract - she now works in Switzerland (where German, French and Italian could all be useful - is Zurich in a German speaking area of the country?).

If she's predicted a mix of As and A stars for her subjects, and if she's interested in studying at more highly ranked universities with stiff competition to study, I think she should go for subjects where she's strongest or most interested, or new subjects, that she's going to be happy to study for 3 or 4 years. If that's an MFL degree, which will probably include components across a range of disciplines, and perhaps a year abroad, that seems like a great starting point. Graduate entrants to financial advice schemes are going to be coming in from a wide range of subjects, and Economics and Maths courses are going to get a lot of applicants who really want to do those subjects, and a young person who is keen to study languages is more likely to be an outstanding applicant in what she wants to learn.